Automatic grocery cart



United States Patent O 3,324,973 AUTOMATIC GRGCERY CART Martin J. Grace, 36 Mabelle St., Worcester, Mass. 01602 Filed Mar. 29, 1966, Ser. No. 538,294 7 Claims. (Cl. 1845-1) The objection to the well-known grocery cart is that when the customer with a full cart comes to the checkout station to pay for the goods, the customer himself is obliged to lift out the merchandise and set it on the checkout counter. Not only is this annoying but the customer who is paying for the goods should not be forced into a position where he has to do manual labor in order to acquire the goods.

It is the principal object of the present invention to provide automatic means for discharging goods from grocery carts and to this end this invention provides a supplemental removable container located within the usual grocery cart basket, together with mechanical means for lifting the supplementary container out of the basket on the cart, move it to the checkout counter, and automatically discharge the contents thereof through a door which forms the bottom of the supplemental container. At the point where the goods are discharged, there can either be provided a traveling belt to move the merchandise gradually as it discharges from the bottom of the container to the cashiers position, or the cashier may check out the goods immediately they discharge from the supplementary container, moving them as checked out to the position where they are bagged or crated for delivery.

vOther objects and advantages of the invention will appear hereinafter.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in elevation illustrating the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating the supplementary container;

FIG. 3 is a View in elevation and partly in section illustrating the elevator means for the container, and

FIG. 4 is a View in section on line 4 4 of FIG. 2 on an enlarged scale.

It is to be understood that the present invention may be applied in various ways and the drawing in the present case is illustrative only. The reference numeral indicates a checkout counter or the like which may or may not -be provided with a top conveyor 12 to lead the goods as they are discharged from the supplemental container 11 to the cash register at 14.

The reference numeral 16 indicates in general an ordinary grocery cart as is well known at the present time. These grocery carts are provided with wheels, casters or the like, a wire basket which is tapered in such a way as to allow nesting from the rear, and the rear of the basket is provided with a swinging gate, all as is well known in the art.

In the present case there is provided a supplementary container 11 best shown in FIG. 2 and this container is provided with tapered side walls and bottom so that it lits in the basket of the cart 16 in one position only. It may be provided with a rear swinging opening gate 18 mounted by hinges at the top so that when the front end of a succeeding basket is thrust into the basket of a preceding cart, door 18 will open to allow the following basket to enter the same if this should be desired.

The container also has an openable bottom member 26 mounted on hinges 22 at the rear thereof. This door is provided with a catch of any description such as shown at 24, the catch being hinged on a pintle and having an operating lever 26 normally held by a spring 28 so that it is closed over the forward end portion of door 20 and latches the same as is indicated in solid lines in FIG. 4. However if the lever 26 is moved in a counterclockwise direction, the latch of lcourse opens. Also as a matter of fact the latch 24 can be arranged to be opened automatically by cleats or the like 30, 30 on conveyor 12 so that when the supplementary container is in the position D in FIG. 1, a cleat Will engage the latch and open it up against the action of the spring 28, so that when the supplementary container is once more lifted slightly upwardly as for instance in the C position thereof, the goods of course gradually are deposited as for instance on the traveling conveyor 12.

The supplementary container is provided with a pair of handles 32, 32 and these are adapted to be grabbed by a pair of grab hooks or the like 34, 34 on a cross arm 36 to which they are pivoted at 38 at the upper ends thereof. The cross arm 36 is adapted to be raised and lowered as by a cable 40 trained over a drum 42 and operated by a motor 44 under control 0f switch 46.

The drum and the motor 44 are mounted on a cart 48 adapted to be moved on rails 50 under the power of a motor 52 and this results in a cycle wherein once the grab hooks 34 are positioned on the handles 32 and switch 46 is pushed, then the supplementary container is merely lifted directly out of the cart 16 through position A to position B by the energization of motor 44 through switch 46. The cross arm 36 then hits a limit switch 54 shutting off motor 44 and energizing motor 52 to move the supplementary container to the C position.

At the C position the cashier can either actuate lever 26 so as to open the bottom 20 manually or as stated before the limit switch as for instance at 56 can be energized to drop the container to the D position where the latch 24 is automatically actuated to open the bottom and then raise the supplementary container to allow the goods to cascade upon belt 12.

There is another limit switch at 5S and if necessary the operator can be provided with other controls so as to energize motor 52 as desired. When the supplementary container is empty, the cashier merely removes the grab hook and stacks the containers ready for reception in another cart of the type shown at 16.

It will be seen that this invention completely dispenses with any handling on the part of the customer who does not have to do the work of removing the merchandise from the cart, but the work is all done mechanically and the only thing that the cashier actually has to ldo is to remove the empty supplementary container from the grab hooks to be ready for the next cusomer.

According to this invention the cashier or other operator may reverse the operation to return the container to the A position, or he may remove the container from the apparatus so as to stack them ready for the next customers coming in the store.

Having thus described my invention and the advantages thereof, I do not wish to be limited to the details herein disclosed, otherwise than as set forth in the claims, but what I claim is:

1. The combination of a checkout counter and a freely movable merchandise cart, of a supplementary container removably held in the merchandise cart, and means elevating said supplementary container completely out of the cart and thence down onto the checkout counter,

wherein said supplementary container has an openable bottom to allow the merchandise therein to fall therefrom by gravity, and means latching said openable bottom in closed position.

2. The combination of claim 1 including means to actuate the latch to open the same to allow the bottom of the supplementary container to open.

3. The combination of claim 1 wherein the means to move the supplementary container comprises means directly elevating the same from the cart and means moving the same laterally from a position directly over the cart to a 'position directly over the checkout counter.

4. The combination of claim 1 wherein the merchandise cart includes a basket that is tapered and nesting and the supplementary container is similarly tapered, the proportions of the supplementary container and the basket being such that the supplementary container is receivable in the basket in a certain loriented position only.

5. The combination of claim 1 including detachable means between the supplementary container elevating means and the supplementary container.

6. The combination of claim 1 including detachable means between the supplementary container elevating means and the Vsupplementary container, said detachable means including grab hooks for removable attachment to the supplementary container so that the supplementary container is moved by said elevating means but is easily and quickly detachable thereform.

7. The combination of Claim 1 wherein said supplementary container is tapered and can be stacked.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 558,178 4/1896 Hulett 214-45 631,717 8/1899 Hulett 214--45 761,501 6/1904 Pierce 214-45 1,656,601 1/1928 Rienks 214-46 3,028,931 4/1962 Donovan.

EVON C. BLUNK, Prmaly Examiner.

H. C. HORNSBY, Assistant Examiner. 

1. THE COMBINATION OF A CHECKOUT COUNTER AND A FREELY MOVABLE MERCHANDISE CART, OF A SUPPLEMENTARY CONTAINER REMOVABLY HELD IN THE MERCHANDISE CART, AND MEANS ELEVATING SAID SUPPLEMENTARY CONTAINER COMPLETELY OUT OF THE CART AND THENCE DOWN ONTO THE CHECKOUT COUNTER, WHEREIN SAID SUPPLEMENTARY CONTAINER HAS AN OPENABLE BOTTOM TO ALLOW THE MERCHANDISE THEREIN TO FALL THEREFROM BY GRAVITY, AND MEANS LATCHING SAID OPENABLE BOTTOM IN CLOSED POSITION. 